Infusing Modern Subjectivity into a Premodern Narrative Form
Masahiro Shinoda and Toru Takemitsu’s Collaboration in Double Suicide (1968)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jfm.v3i1.37Keywords:
Takemitsu, Bunraku, Art Theatre GuildAbstract
This article explores Masahiro Shinoda's cinematography and Toru Takemitsu's soundtracks in the Japanese film Double Suicide (1968). Along with Shinoda’s transformation of puppets into human actors, Takemitsu’s soundtracks infuse modern subjectivity into the highly stylized bunraku narrative: while the ritualized music of Balinese gamelan, bunraku chanting, and Turkish nei demarcates the traditional form of jo-ha-kyû, meta-diegetic sounds of biwa and gongs convey the inner subjectivity of the lovers who are driven to commit suicide.
References
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Cornyetz, Nina. 2007. The ethics of aesthetics in Japanese cinema and literature: Polygraphic desire. New York: Routledge.
De Bary, Brett. 1993. Not another Double Suicide: Gender, national identity, and repetition in Shinoda Masahiro’s Shinjûten no Amijima. IRIS 16 (Spring): 57-86.
Eckersall, Peter. 2006. From liminality to ideology: The politics of embodiment in prewar avant-garde theater in Japan. In Not the other avant-garde: The transnational foundations of avant-garde performance, ed. James M. Harding and J. Rouse. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 225-49.
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Goodman, David G. 1999. Angura: Posters of the Japanese avant-garde. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
Higashi, Harumi. Realism and Kyojitsuhiniku, Bunka kagaku kenkyûka/ Sokendai review of cultural and social studies, 9-25. Accessed June 15, 2009. http://www.initiative.soken.ac.jp/journal_bunka/080220_higashi/index_en.html
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McDonald, Keiko. 1983. Cinema East: A critical study of major Japanese films. London and Toronto: Associated University Press.
Shind?, Kanehito. 1980. ATG and I. In ATG eiga no zenb?. Tokyo: Natsushokan-han.
Shinoda, Masahiro. 2000. Double Suicide. DVD. The Criterion Collection.
———. 1970. Shinjû Tennoamijima. Tokyo: Kamensha.
Takemitsu, Toru. 1970. There are so few good movies… (Ii eiga ga sukunaine). Mainichi Newspaper. February 24.
———. 1975. Ki no kagami/S?gen no kagami (Mirror of trees/Mirror of fields). Tokyo: Shinch? publisher.
———. 2002. On Double Suicide. In Toru Takemitsu complete collection vol. 3. Tokyo: Sh?gakkun.
Tenzer, Michael. 1991. Balinese music. Berkeley: Periplus Editions.
Turner, Victor W. 1969. The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Yoshida, Kiju. 2003. Ozu’s anti-cinema. Trans. Daisuke Miyao and Kyoko Hirano. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Cornyetz, Nina. 2007. The ethics of aesthetics in Japanese cinema and literature: Polygraphic desire. New York: Routledge.
De Bary, Brett. 1993. Not another Double Suicide: Gender, national identity, and repetition in Shinoda Masahiro’s Shinjûten no Amijima. IRIS 16 (Spring): 57-86.
Eckersall, Peter. 2006. From liminality to ideology: The politics of embodiment in prewar avant-garde theater in Japan. In Not the other avant-garde: The transnational foundations of avant-garde performance, ed. James M. Harding and J. Rouse. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 225-49.
Everett, Yayoi U. 2009. Scream against the sky: Japanese avant-garde music in the sixties. In Sound commitments: Avant-garde music and the sixties, ed. Robert Adlington. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 187-208.
Fujita, Hiroshi. 1994. Bunraku handbook. Tokyo: Sansh?d?.
Gerstle, C. Andrew. 2002. Introduction to “Chikamatsu Monzaemon and the puppet theater.” In Early modern Japanese literature, ed. Haruo Shirane. New York: Columbia University Press.
Goodman, David G. 1999. Angura: Posters of the Japanese avant-garde. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
Higashi, Harumi. Realism and Kyojitsuhiniku, Bunka kagaku kenkyûka/ Sokendai review of cultural and social studies, 9-25. Accessed June 15, 2009. http://www.initiative.soken.ac.jp/journal_bunka/080220_higashi/index_en.html
Kuzui, Kinshir?. 1980. The essence of ATG. In ATG eiga no zenb?. Tokyo: Natsushokan-han.
McDonald, Keiko. 1983. Cinema East: A critical study of major Japanese films. London and Toronto: Associated University Press.
Shind?, Kanehito. 1980. ATG and I. In ATG eiga no zenb?. Tokyo: Natsushokan-han.
Shinoda, Masahiro. 2000. Double Suicide. DVD. The Criterion Collection.
———. 1970. Shinjû Tennoamijima. Tokyo: Kamensha.
Takemitsu, Toru. 1970. There are so few good movies… (Ii eiga ga sukunaine). Mainichi Newspaper. February 24.
———. 1975. Ki no kagami/S?gen no kagami (Mirror of trees/Mirror of fields). Tokyo: Shinch? publisher.
———. 2002. On Double Suicide. In Toru Takemitsu complete collection vol. 3. Tokyo: Sh?gakkun.
Tenzer, Michael. 1991. Balinese music. Berkeley: Periplus Editions.
Turner, Victor W. 1969. The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Yoshida, Kiju. 2003. Ozu’s anti-cinema. Trans. Daisuke Miyao and Kyoko Hirano. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Published
2010-12-22
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Everett, Y. U. (2010). Infusing Modern Subjectivity into a Premodern Narrative Form: Masahiro Shinoda and Toru Takemitsu’s Collaboration in Double Suicide (1968). Journal of Film Music, 3(1), 37-49. https://doi.org/10.1558/jfm.v3i1.37
